New Delhi India has jumped to the second position in the Global Innovation Efficiency Index in 2012, from 9th position last year, according to a study.

Countries which are strong in producing innovation outputs despite a weaker innovation environment and inputs are poised to rank high in the efficiency index. While China topped the list, interestingly, Switzerland and the Netherlands ranked 5th and 9th. Sri Lanka was at the 10th position, a report prepared by CII, Alcatel-Lucent and Booz & Co said.

In recent years, patenting has been considered one of the major drivers for enhancing national competitiveness and most of the advanced countries have been more actively enforcing patent protection. However, the indicators proposed in previous studies have not been able to deal adequately with the various dimensions of patenting, rather focusing on patent application counts. Therefore, in this research, a comprehensive patent performance indicator is proposed to provide a yardstick by which government policymakers can evaluate the whole process of converting patents into economic assets.

For more than two hundred years, the world has discussed the issue of whether to continue the process of patenting or whether to do away with it. Developed countries remain polarized for various reasons but nevertheless the pro patent regime continued. The result was a huge volume of patents. The present article explains the implications of excessive volume of patents and conditions under which prior art search fails. This article highlights the importance and necessity of standardization efforts so as to bring about convergence of views on patenting.